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March 9, 2006Kingsley, St. Francis set to meet once againGladiators won the last two postseason meetings
Forest Area junior Adam Kellogg, left, loses possession of the ball after colliding with Kingsley senior Drew Wyse. Kingsley and Traverse City St. Francis made sure of that with preliminary wins on Wednesday night. For the third consecutive season, the two teams will meet in the Class C district basketball tournament after the Stags rolled to a 68-41 victory over Forest Area and the Gladiators followed suit with a 75-53 win over host Suttons Bay. The two will play for the district championship on Friday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $5 and will be available at both schools today. "Both teams have some great athletes, and it's become a pretty good rivalry," said Kingsley coach Pete Nickerson, whose team is 18-3. "It'll make for a good match-up." St. Francis (19-2) won the previous two meetings. "It's going to be a great game," said Gladiators coach Pat Cleland. "(The Stags) have a lot of incentive to beat us. "They're a very good basketball team. (Caleb) Nickerson and Joe Zenner aren't just good basketball players, they're great basketball players. And Drew Wyse is an athlete. He's a winner. He only knows how to do it one way - 100 percent." Kingsley took a 16-6 first-quarter lead on Forest Area and increased it to 36-17 by halftime. A 23-10 run in the third period pushed the margin to 59-27 by the end of the quarter. Five Stags scored at least 9 points - Zenner (14), Nickerson (12), Ken Sedlacek (9), Nick Putala (9) and Daniel Worm (9). Forest Area was led by Jessie Cecil (9), Ben Brown (7) and freshman Tyler Denike (6). "Forest Area has a nice group coming through," Nickerson said. "(Coach Ryan Benzenberg) is bringing it together. They're going to be a threat in a few years." St. Francis didn't waste any time taking control in its victory over Suttons Bay, and the offensive spark came from an unexpected source - Chad Biggar. The 6-foot-1 senior needed only 3 minutes to surpass his season scoring average. He nailed a jumper, a put-back and 3-pointer in a 10-4 run to open the game. Biggar sank his first five shots and finished with 11 first-quarter points as the Gladiators went up 25-9. "Chad was our spark," Cleland said. "That's the Chad who showed up in the districts last year. I hope that's a sign of things to come." Suttons Bay (11-11) battled back to within 12 points, 36-24 with 1:20 remaining in the half, but St. Francis - helped by a foul/technical foul combination that resulted in 5 points - finished the period strong. The Glads led 43-24 at halftime. "Suttons Bay is coached way too well and their kids have way too much pride to let a game get away uncontested," Cleland said. "(Norsemen coach Todd Hursey) had a great game plan. We played good, not great. They made us work for everything we got." Hursey returned the compliment. "Pat Cleland does a great job," he said. "He always deflects the credit, gives it to the kids and his assistants, but he does such a great job. "He's a first-class coach. I don't think he gets the credit he deserves." Ten different players scored for St. Francis, which connected on 52 percent of its shots (25-for-52) and outrebounded the Norsemen 30-19. Hunter Nostrant led the way with 20 points and 8 rebounds, while Biggar added 14 points and 6 boards and Kyle O'Brien had 10 points, 8 assists and 4 rebounds. Also contributing were Rigan (7 points), Matt DeMerle (7), Ben Wheelock (6) and Ben Asam (5). Ray Freund paced Suttons Bay with 13 points, while Dan McKisson added 12 in his final high school game. Cale Forton chipped in with 9 for the Norsemen.
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